OCR
IZOLDA TAKÁCS: THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY The second chapter, titled “Women in top leadership positions. Possibilities, obstacles and the chimera of segregation”, takes into account the general characteristics of workplace administration, the administrative atmosphere relevant to gender, and prejudices based on binary oppositions identified by women in leadership positions, which still limit their opportunities and choices. The career paths of women, especially in academia and science, are the focus of the chapter. These include the difficulties faced by women when they move up in the administrative hierarchy, if they pursue a career in science, and if they aim for the leadership position. The aims of the third chapter, titled “What is behind the academic election? Between Scylla and Charybdis: Female quotas or natural but slow change that might take decades?”, is to provide a comprehensive representation of the Hungarian aspects of academy membership for women, based on the contributions of valuable insight from researchers and academics, while also listing the possible opportunities and tools that might be of help for raising the proportion of female academics in our country. The chapter then summarizes their voices articulated on the pages of Magyar Tudomany [Hungarian Science]. While many women in Hungarian society completely reject all manifestations of everyday sexism and take collective action to change it, others agree with most of the gender stereotypes, which can be an indirect obstacle to the areas overrepresented by men. With this in mind, the fourth chapter, “Women in the scientific elite. Interrelation of gender identity and sexist beliefs in their careers”, examines the attitude of the female members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to the question “What does it mean to be a woman?” It explores what their relationship is to their own social group in terms of characteristics, qualities, interests and values. It poses the question of how the essentializing discourse appears in their own career. It also asks whether exceptions (female academics) lead to a further strengthening of traditional perceptions and norms, or conversely, whether a transformation of the formerly closed system (of the male majority) has started in Hungary. Along with this, how do the members of a seemingly more homogeneous group of women differ, and how do they form different types regarding gender identity? The final chapter, “Gender history retrospective in Hungary after 1949. Spaces and opportunities after the Declaration of Gender Equality and the shadow of the ideology of the Party”, attempts a comprehensive introduction of how historical changes in the second part of the 20th century affected policies on women and science, education and employment as well as the family support system in Hungary. The chapter shows how the contradictory ideological and practical conditions of the world emerged as a result of the interrupted process of civilisation (the interrupted development of the middle class), and how these affected the structure of social roles. By quoting passages of interviews, the chapter intends to demonstrate the precise traditional and new issues female scientists have/could have faced during the era of state socialism. “Se